History Lesson for Girls [Hardcover]

Aurelie Sheehan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 2006

A beautiful and resonant novel about a friendship that shaped a life during a decade of instability

Everyone remembers age thirteen. For Alison Glass, it was 1975, the year she moved to Weston, Connecticut, with her bohemian parents and her horse, Jazz. Life was about trying to navigate the hypocrisies of an unfamiliar affluent town and figuring out how she might blend in at school— despite her status as the new girl with a back brace for scoliosis. Kate Hamilton, the popular daughter of an egomaniacal New Age guru—the “sham shaman”—and his substance-loving wife, was an unlikely friend, the strong girl Alison regarded as her saving grace. Bonding over their love of horses, they rode away the afternoons, creating a private world for themselves as a way to survive the excesses of their surroundings and the adults who cast them adrift in such a tumultuous time. With the clarity of hindsight, Alison looks back on how the tumult inevitably broke through.

Set against the backdrop of the often hilariously tacky and disturbingly reckless 1970s, Aurelie Sheehan’s luminous History Lesson for Girls is at once an emotional inquest and an elegy for a friendship that meant everything. As Alison traces the giddy highs and crushing lows that made her the person she was at thirteen, a picture emerges of a friendship that simply couldn’t survive the weight of the shadows under which it was forged. Combining the poignancy and elegance of The Virgin Suicides with the sharp observational eye of The Ice Storm, History Lesson for Girls is an enchanting tribute to the lingering influence of friendship and significance of personal history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in 1975, Sheehan's second novel skillfully depicts an adolescent girl's small but resonant steps toward adulthood; unfortunately, the bigger steps are handled with a bit too much theatricality. The teenage tendency toward obsession-whether for horses, a particular band or CD, or a single, all-consuming friendship-provides the fuel for this uneven suburban coming-of-age, capturing with artful simplicity the quotidian magic of an improbable friendship. Unpopular 13-year-old Alison Glass, new to Weston, Connecticut and afflicted with scoliosis, and the popular, independent Kate Hamilton discover one another and the world. Sheehan nails important adolescent moments like playing it cool when offered a first cigarette or having one's taste in music scrutinized by a new friend. The quiet pleasures of the pair's private moments clash with increasingly stagy subplots: Alison's persistent fear of undergoing surgery to correct her spine, the over-the-top violence of Kate's drunk, greedy father, and the indiscrete affair between him and Alison's hippie mother. Sheehan perceptively identifies the outside world as a corrupting agent in fragile friendships; however, as Kate herself comments, "It's usually not so damn obvious."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

With her cumbersome back brace and bohemian parents, 13-year-old Alison is an outsider in her Connecticut town until popular Kate befriends her. At school, and on their horses, the girls find escape together. Against a backdrop of 1970s dysfunction (abusive new-age gurus; parental drug benders), the family secrets are sharp and shocking. In her second novel, Sheehan juxtaposes small moments the way an artist uses colors, creating potency and meaning with immediate contrasts. In her bright kitchen, Alison listens to Kate's voice--"a dark thread in a dark hole"--and realizes that her friend is in trouble. These subtle details amplify the seeming contradictions in larger events: a normal school day after madness at home; a child parenting a parent; the past reappearing in the present. And then there's the hope that surfaces after anguish: "There was no reason that I couldn't live this way," says Alison about her twisted spine. "Like any imperfect but plausible thing, a tree growing around a telephone pole." A tender, unflinching, and distinctive view of how girls grow up. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition first Printing edition (July 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670037672
• ISBN-13: 978-0670037674
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,831,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Aurelie Sheehan is the author of two novels, History Lesson for Girls and The Anxiety of Everyday Objects, as well as a short story collection, Jack Kerouac Is Pregnant. She teaches fiction and directs the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well written and entertaining., August 2, 2006

By 

Russ Schmidt (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: History Lesson for Girls (Hardcover)

My wife is a big fan of this author. She liked this book so much she convinced me to read it. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Judging by the title, I didn't think it would be a something I would like. But having grown up in the 70's in a similar environment, I found myself relating to Alison and her friend Kate. A lot of people think of the 70's as being a simpler time, when everyone lived in a "Brady Bunch" sterilized world. The truth is completely the opposite. It was a transitional and confusing time in America and this book captures that period perfectly. I recommend this book for anyone who likes a good book about growing up in America (in any decade, not just the 70's) and how traumatic those early teenage years can be.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could not have been any better, August 8, 2006

By 

E. Northrop (MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: History Lesson for Girls (Hardcover)

This novel reads like you just found someone's diary in an attic of a home you just moved into, it is that authentic in every single aspect. Ms. Sheehan captures the essence of a 13-14 year old girl, and her relationship with her best friend in the midst of the 1970s. It is exquisitely poignant and one book I will not soon forget.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely a lesson to learn..., August 1, 2006

By 

H Mason "Heather" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: History Lesson for Girls (Hardcover)

I loved Alison's character. She was genuine, innocent, but at the same time mature for her young age (sometimes, more mature than her parents). Alison was challenged with Kate but was rather cool and collective during her friendship. It's interesting how best friends put up with each other. This brought back my childhood memories with best friends, especially. I also enjoyed the way the author described Alison's thoughts and views of her family. There were sarcastic moments that made me laugh, which at the time, it may not have been that funny with Alison. For instance, when Alison had to listen to her parents argue over a petty conversation, the author describes how she has to listen because it was at the dinner table, a place that family should be enjoying their company together but instead it becomes the table of debate. It shows the power of how parents can influence a child. Without giving too many details away, "..Mom turned and made a dramatic exit out of the room...My father stood up, pushing his chair hard against the floor. He, too, flung his dish into the sink and left the kitchen. I got up myself: Dinner seemed to be over. I picked up my plate. Maybe it was a new ritual, flinging plates, like breaking wineglasses at a wedding. To fling or not to fling? I walked across the kitchen and put my plate in the sink quietly." Again, Alison is a mature person for her age. It's definitely worth reading.